Hi Everyone.Well, here's an unexpected twist.Since January, we have been going through the process of selling my mum's house after she passed away last December. Today, the solicitor emailed to say that the contracts are ready to sign and I can't go over to remove the last of her furniture and final effects. Goodness knows how on earth I am going to sort this one out. The UK is in lockdown so I can't safely rent a van or get together with other family members. Oh well, I suppose it will work out one way or another...

howdy peeps A large tea would be great. Quiet day here other than the wind Howling. Thank goodness I don't have to go out in it. I was able to find a book I was waiting on at the library on their e-book app so that made me a happy camper.The sun is shining. I hope everyone is trying to have a good day I have COOKIES! In Big Bird we have : strawberry &vanilla pinwheels, vanilla and chocolate pinwheels, pecan divines and butterscotch and pretzel cookies In Cookie Monster we have strawberry&vanilla pinwheels, vanilla and chocolate pinwheels, ginger snaps and butterscotch &pretzel cookies Yep trying out some new recipes today. *giving the adorable mascots fresh water and treats * No plans today other than reading and maybe some writing

Joined: 8/24/2011Posts: 710Location: lost in the ozone west of Apache Junction

Morning, Story Spacers. The good news is Sara dropped off a batch of cookies. The bad news is I'll have hit the cookie jars any minute now. ;)

Sara, let me ask about your library e-book setup. Are the books text-to-speech or do they use human readers or both?

Just a reminder that the Project Gutenberg site has both kinds though the Text-to-Speech has the most selection. However, the site is free and has a huge inventory. No matter what happens, pizza will always be there for you. Thick and thin, in crust we trust.'

I've made a pot of coffee and the water is simmering. I have poured a lot of coffee into a thermos cup that I will be taking with me this morning.

So, I've got a long day coming up. The medical portion will all be at the local hospital. First I start with a port lab in the oncology department where they access my port, take blood, and leave the access in to be used later. Then I will go across the hospital to the imaging department and await getting a CT scan. That may occur between 10:15 and noon. When that is complete I need to await the results so I will go back to the oncology department. When the results are given to my oncologist she will call me in for a talk about it. We are hoping that no new cancer growth has appeared. If that is the case all is good and I will go on home to await the end of the pandemic. If new cancer has shown we will have to discuss our options.

When that stuff is finished I will try to get a bit of shopping done in the afternoon for things we may need in our home.

All I'm saying is you've never seen me crying and eating tacos at the same time.

Dearest Larry, it kind of sucks to have the pandemic and all those tests to deal with. But you always show such good stoic humor. But then, you have been fighting this battle for several years.

Guess I will try and get the kitchen floor mopped today. I know, calm down friends, everyone has a floor someplace they can mop. Lots of people are probably writing beautiful sonnets and prose or painting new images for the world to enjoy. But...hey, I'm happy with my floor today.

Nice to see you, ladies. The more ladies the better as far as I am concerned.

All went well today at the hospital. As I have said before we have very few Covid-19 cases in our county as of yet. But the hospital is taking all precautions. I completed a set of questions at the only open entrance to the facility. My temperature was taken to check for fever. I was given a facemask to wear while there.

Blood was drawn easily through my port. Then I waited for the CT scan, drinking the "brew" necessary for a good scan using the access created earlier in my chest. I awaited the results at the oncology center and they arrived shortly thereafter. My oncologist and I discussed the good results. I am doing well. The areas that had cancer in the past are "unremarkable" and "stable" which are good things.

I will not go back for any treatments for now. In three months these procedures will be followed again and we hope the results are the same. That will be a good thing.

Victor was so happy to see me after spending a good portion of the day moping, awaiting my return. It will soon be his dinner and walk time. Almost 5:00 o'clock here.

All I'm saying is you've never seen me crying and eating tacos at the same time.

Joined: 11/25/2015Posts: 849Location: Sailing on the Bay, United States

Larry, I'm glad everything came out well with your scans.

I finally found flour on a trip out to Costco today. I needed to stock up on fruit and vegetables and spotted s pallet of flour. The only part that is silly is having to buy two bags because they bundle them together. I now have twenty pounds of flour, lol. I need to get baking. My son and girlfriend had decided to make macaron cookies because we do have almond flour. But now we can make a lot more things. We made Shepard's pie tonight. We brought ribs and are going to have a rib cook-off tomorrow. We each get a rack of ribs to cook the way we want to. My youngest is coming to come home tomorrow to judge the winner and of course to eat them with us.

Still, no toilet paper to be found. But I am healthy and so is my family, so I really can't complain.

Sarah, thanks for more cookies. I'll have a handful. I am staying up to enjoy peace and quiet in my house at night. It's a little too busy and noisy at times with everyone at home.

Anna, I hope you can find a solution to your Mom's house. It is amazing how many unintended and unforeseen consequences have been occurring everywhere.

I'm still enjoying my new bathroom. Soaking in a bath, reading and listening to music takes my mind off what is going on.

Gill, we have bought a new kitchen sink, faucet, and three light-fixtures to be put into our kitchen by the handyman. We were hoping he would be doing that soon after he put in the new countertop tiles we had selected. He was going to buy them (with our credit card) so he could load them up and bring them over whenever he was ready to work. Well, the current situation has put a stop to this. I am hoping he will get back to me next week about what his work schedule looks like now.

It would seem we may not get the kitchen refinished for a while.

All I'm saying is you've never seen me crying and eating tacos at the same time.

Well, the Zoom online visit went surprisingly well, considering it was the first day this doctor had used it and was the first time I had tried it myself.

I had only ever been a guest in Zoom meetings until my wife started using it for work (her university went to online only so she uses a university-provided Zoom account for her office hours). It's definitely one of the simpler, but still good quality, online conferencing systems that I have seen. If my employer wasn't already committed to Microsoft Teams (which does more than just conferencing), I might look at it for work. I was glad to see a few posts down that your cancer followup went well. Good news is nice to hear these days.

Hi, all. Sorry I'm kind of scarce. Working from home is actually keeping me busier than being in the office, I think.

We had talked about replacing the kitchen counters and a redo of the deck this year but the contractor I used last time we had work done (a nice English guy who did a lot of work for my employer) passed away this winter and given the current situation, I'm not about to go hunting for a new contractor right now. So I guess we're bumping it off to at least 2021.

Anna, I hope you can find a solution to your Mom's house. It is amazing how many unintended and unforeseen consequences have been occurring everywhere.

Thanks, Gill. I am sure that it will work out one way or another. The important memories have already been removed. What is left is mainly just furniture that my daughter wants for her house. It will be a shame if we have to let it go but our health is far more important.I have to say that I love your bathroom, The industrial style is right up my street. The black fittings complement the white beautifully. I am about to do mine but we only have the tiles so far. That means it won't get done until we can get the suite.

If I may, Sara, I will try one of your flip flops. I think it will go well with a strong black coffee.

Today we drove into the Kansas City metro area. We were taking two bags of books to my brother-in-law's mother-in-law. She is quarantined in place there. We saw her and my brother-in-law and his wife sitting outside enjoying the nice weather. They were each spread out over six feet away from each other.

We learned some news. My nephew, a respiratory therapist, discovered he had been exposed to Covid-19 last week. He kept that from the family while he was getting tested. It was found he was negative, but he is still quarantined for two weeks to make sure he is cleared. His wife is also a respiratory therapist working in the Kansas City metro area.

All I'm saying is you've never seen me crying and eating tacos at the same time.

When I'm not depressed, I've been super busy. Trying to keep my kids entertained. My special one has sure been taking this well and not acting up.Which is a big surprise. Being autistic ANY change can cause a melt-down. My daughter breaks down in tears, she is so scared. It broke my heartthe other day when she ran to my arms crying and said "Mom I don't want to die.". I just held her and had a good cry with her. I told her you aresafe here. Thank goodness Robert was taking a nap, and didn't see.

Larry so happy you are doing well. Nice to see so many others. It's so nice and quiet here. Like we're all in a living room with a big sofa, with lots of pillows. Enjoying each others company.

So many of our health care providers all over the states seems to be getting sick. Today a doctor who didn't know he had the virus just infected our local Denali Center a nursing home. All the virus test came back negative for my niece and all the group homeresidents after being exposed. (can't remember if I mentioned that before).

So scary out there. They tell people don't panic, but the shelves are always so empty. There simply is no more fresh meat for now. I sure misschicken. By the end of this I'm going to hate mac & cheese and frozen pizza.

Scott what you said about working at home, made me remember this meme I had up the other day on my wall. Is this you?

I've been hearing a lot about this Zoom. Is it easy to set up and use? I will talk to Jon about it, see if it can be used with grandma.She is getting grumpy being stuck at home and not allowed to go out.

Well have to run. See what I can find to bake later tonight to keep the kids busy.

The coffee house is busy. Always good to see Linda with news from Alaska. Great coffee this morning, Cynthia. I'll brew another pot for when the late morning rush gets here.

Not sure if I mentioned it but our lady governor has declared a stay-in-place for the entire state of Kansas and not simply for the counties most hit. Our county at present has 14 positives and no deaths for now. As far as I can tell I don't need to go out again until medicines are ready at the pharmacy. My next doctor's visit is three months from now.

I suppose I will need to fill up with gasoline in the next couple of weeks. The prices have dropped drastically in the past few days.

All I'm saying is you've never seen me crying and eating tacos at the same time.

Howdy folks It's so good to be able to keep up with everyone's news I hope everyone is trying to enjoy the day with this new normal

It is pretty quiet on my mountain I think the neighbors next door are sleeping off their partying last night because its quiet as church mice.

I think I might do a little writing. I finished all my library movies so I'll be diving into my collection today I'm sure. I have COOKIES! In Big Bird we have: snickerdoodles ,carrot cake cookies, cinnamon stars and snow puffs In Cookie Monster we have :snowflake & ice cookies, lemon softies, peanut butter melts and frosted ginger cookies *giving the adorable mascots fresh water and treats *I finished my last library book I checked out when the library was open. The e-book app is awesome. Not sure what I'll read next on it.

Scott what you said about working at home, made me remember this meme I had up the other day on my wall. Is this you?

I've been hearing a lot about this Zoom. Is it easy to set up and use? I will talk to Jon about it, see if it can be used with grandma.She is getting grumpy being stuck at home and not allowed to go out.

Other than mainly using Microsoft Teams rather than Zoom, that's not bad. I did have a moment on an audio-only conference where I realized that I was in a business meeting with no pants on.

Zoom is probably the simplest conferencing software out there, based on helping my wife set it up. It is meeting software, though, so you can't just call or chat someone like you can in Skype or similar. You send and invitation that has a link to the meeting.My Stories here:

Read an interesting article in local newspaper. *Guards will continue to work in the regional jail even if they get sick with the virus.* Went on to say they can stay in the jail to sleep and eat and continue to do their jobs.... Left me thinking do people really take this seriously, do they even know the life threatening possibilities from this illness?

Joined: 8/24/2011Posts: 710Location: lost in the ozone west of Apache Junction

G-O-O-D morning, Stories Spacers!! Okay, I'll admit that greeting might be just a tad over-the-top not to mention irritating. However, I'd argue that it beasts, "Up your nose with a rubber hose," although that one from the old 'Welcome Back Kotter' series might be more appropriate to the occasion. However, I'm open to discussion of that burning issue. ;)

Anyway, coffee's hot and ready to trot. If you drain the pot, then it behooves you to get the next one going.

. No matter what happens, pizza will always be there for you. Thick and thin, in crust we trust.'

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